Justification:
This species is widespread in the Indo-Pacific, and is considered common. It is heavily fished in at least 25% of its range (Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Madagascar), however due to its low commercial value, it is not readily fished in the other parts of its range. It is listed as Least Concern. However, this species should be monitored, if it becomes of higher value or as other high value species become depleted.

This species is found in the Indo-Pacific, excluding the Persian Gulf and Hawaii. It occurs from eastern Africa (Kenya) to Kiribati and the Marshall Islands in the east. The range includes northern Australia in the south, and the Red Sea to the Philippines (including India, Bangladesh and the southeast Asian peninsula) in the north.

This is a very common species. Population densities are generally less than 50 individuals per hectare. In Seychelles, it has an average density of 0.08 ind*ha-1 where it is unexploited (Aumeeruddy and Conand 2008). In Papua New Guinea, there were 4 ind*/ha-1 in 1992 and 6 ind*ha-1 in 2006 (Kaly et al. 2007)

This is a coral reef species rarely found in depths of more than 25 m; mostly found on reef slopes close to the coast; abundant on corals mixed with calcareous red algae. In the Western Central Pacific region, this species can be found in reef slopes and protected back reef areas in patch reef close to the coast between 0 and 25 m (Kinch et al. 2008). In Africa and the Indian Ocean region, this species prefers to inhabit living corals in shallow reefs. It often feeds during the day and night on detritus. In Kenya, this species is often found grazing on dead coral and sponges (Samyn 2000). This species does not burrow. Little is known on its biology (Conand 2008). In Japan, it lives in sandy areas and reef zones between 5 and 20 m (Bruckner 2005).

In the Great Barrier Reef (Australia), this species reproduces between November and February (Kinch et al. 2008). The juveniles of this species are very different from the adult, resembling toxic nudibranchs (Samyn et al. 2006, Conand 2008). This species is known to host the pearl fish Carapus boraborensis (Eeckhaut et al. 2004).

There are quite a few observations of spawning of this species (Conand pers. comm. 2010).

This species is commercially exploited in Guam, FSM, Kiribati, PNG, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia and Fiji (Kinch et al. 2008), and is heavily exploited in about 25% of its range in Malaysia, Philippines (as B. graeffei), Indonesia (Choo 2008), and Madagascar (Rasolofonirina 2007)

This species has low commercial value (Toral-Granda 2006). It is not commonly harvested in other parts of its range.